I think someone started a thread with an eczema question once, but not a general purpose one where we can all whine about our skin peeling like a boiled tomato.

So hi! It's summer! My skin is freaking out! A few weeks ago, my left pointer finger broke out so badly, I hadn't seen anything like it since I first started getting eczema in high school. Usually i'm a pretty good judge of when my skin is peeling in a way that the skin underneath will already be dry and dead, but not this time. I ended up with a Freddy Kruger finger.

I decided to be proactive this year and bought a bunch of kiddie band aids, so I won't have painted nails and then a bunch of ugly, brown band aids.

Also, I have a patch on my palm that likes to regularly go nuts, and I have yet to figure out a way to cover that effectively without doing something nuts like wrapping my whole hand up. I try to leave it alone, but you know how sometimes you absentmindedly scratch something a few times before you're like, "Oh shiitake, that's my eczema! Stop it!"

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

I have a patch of eczema on my ankle that has been bad since I was a kid. I try everything to make it go away but it persists. I had a pretty annoying break out on my face and chest in the winter (never happened before!!) and my doctor told me to help his eczema in the winter he eats "cleaner", and also no tropical fruits, barely any sugar. I did the same and it seemed to help. However.. that pesky ankle... :T

I'm starting to wonder if the stupid rashy things on my hand are eczema. It has been particularly bad the past few days. At night I slather on petroleum jelly, which seems to help, and put on cotton gloves, but so often I wake up and find myself scratching my wrist (which is where it is worst and also where the glove won't stay put. Sigh.)

I asked the doctor about it a few times last year and they prescribed steroid cream, but that doesn't make it feel any better and can only be used for a week or two because of the risk of thinning the skin. I want advice on some sort of moisturiser and I should probably go ask the doctor or pharmacist again, but I feel I should wait until the rash is at its most distinctive-looking stage: where I get tiny, tiny little raised bumps filled with clear fluid. At the moment it has changed to just red spots with some dry skin. Still itchy as fork most of the time though.

Oh, and unrelated but odd, the skin around the finger tips of my left hand has gone very dry and started peeling off, leaving the layer of skin underneath it tender and sore.

Skin, please calm down.

_________________An unprocessed chicken is walking around and clucking to itself. And yes, I think they're healthier that way too. - Tofulish

I've always had eczema on my upper arms which was practically cured by lush's buffy bar soap. I also have patches on both of my arms of this really really bad and sometimes painful skin. they are like symmetrical and sooo awful. My dermatologist says they aren't eczema, but maybe they are...I've had them for nearly 2 years and the patches won't go away.

Stress is the most common trigger, and mine is always worse in the summer. Although it's gotten a LOT better over the years, when I started cutting down on dairy I noticed a big change, but food triggers vary from person to person.

Also LW, I peel off my polish in the shower. I know it's bad for my nails but I have put acetone on and watched the skin around my nails turn WHITE. So I try to just use it to get the edges that wouldn't peel off, I also have some hippie polish remover but I still have to swipe my nails with the straight stuff or I get bumps in the fresh polish.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Have you tried covering your cuticles in cream or cuticle oil or something soothing to acts as a barrier? Then, use a thin cotton pad and fold it up to just target the area. If you press the strip of cotton on your nail, you don't need a lot of acetone for it to work. I can take off black, red, or glitter very easily with this method.

_________________"This is the creepiest post ever if you don't know who Molly is." -Fee"a vegan death match sounds like something where we all end up hugging." -LisaPunk

My nightshade allergy sets off an eczema-like rash (if not actually eczema), so since discovering the allergy, I thought I had it under control. Then this past winter, it was in full force (also all over my hands) for a month no matter what I ate, and I started fearing that I was secretly allergic to other things too. But nope, it was just a flare-up. At least it was in the winter so my hands were covered with mittens/gloves a lot.

mrsbadmouth wrote:

I try to leave it alone, but you know how sometimes you absentmindedly scratch something a few times before you're like, "Oh shiitake, that's my eczema! Stop it!"

My husband now watches for me and tells me to "stop picking" or "stop scratching." I appreciate it, because otherwise I'd do it without noticing and make things worse... but it's really hard for him to believe that I don't notice scratching so much or so hard.

My oldest daughter has chronic eczema that gets really bad. I tell her to stop scratching multiple times a day. In our experience, steroid creams make it worse. Some things that help with itching are oatmeal baths (just grind up oatmeal into powder and add to bath), bleach baths (sounds scary and toxic but it can help) and upping Vitamin D. Also, keeping the area very moisturized helps. You can use simple things like EVOO (which is the only thing she can use) coconut oil (the extra virgin kind you'd use for cooking) and even shea butter. Putting the moisturizer over damp skin helps seal in the mositure too.

_________________Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. Buddha

I asked the pharmacist and she says it looked like eczema. There were a few different moisturisers she said might help, but it will be trial and error so I'd be better going to a doctor and getting a precription so it's cheaper. The pharmacist did give me some free samples of La Roche-Posay creams (this seems to be a high-end dermatology brand). The first one I tried really stung though, even though it is a 'soothing pretective cream', and I had to leave the house, so I shoved some olive oil on as well. Now that I'm back I have put on petroleum jelly and gloves because it was very dry and itchy. Maybe I need to let my skin calm down a bit before I put on the fancy cream?

_________________An unprocessed chicken is walking around and clucking to itself. And yes, I think they're healthier that way too. - Tofulish

BLECH! Eczema is the worst. Mine is always on my face, and it always starts in the same spot between my nose and my right eye, and then it spreads all over my face. I finally was able to get medical attention for it, and was prescribed betamethasone valirate (ointment, 2x/day) and ketaconazole (cream, 1x/day). It cleared up in about a week, which was amazing...I had literally not seen my whole face in over a year at that point...but it came back, not as bad as before, but it's definitely back, and it definitely still flares up when I'm stressed and/or exposed to environmental triggers (toxic cleaning products, wet paint, people wearing perfume, cat litter products...)

This is what my face looked like before I started using the prescription stuff, though...(spoilertagged for GROSS)

Yeah, my thumbs are pretty much 100% scar tissue on the pads, and other fingers have permanent lines in them.

I tried tanning for awhile because I heard that could help (I wore sunscreen), a HUGE patch appeared on the bottom of my foot and I was like, "AW HELLS NO!" It did help, but I started doing that right at the beginning of my veganism so now that i'm using a lot more natural products, it's not as bad as it is when I resorted to tanning. And even with sunscreen, that's not something I wanted to keep up forever. I did find it soothing to lay naked in a warm tube while a fan blew right up my crotch and they pumped in soft top 40 music, though.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Stress is the most common trigger, and mine is always worse in the summer. Although it's gotten a LOT better over the years, when I started cutting down on dairy I noticed a big change, but food triggers vary from person to person.

Also LW, I peel off my polish in the shower. I know it's bad for my nails but I have put acetone on and watched the skin around my nails turn WHITE. So I try to just use it to get the edges that wouldn't peel off, I also have some hippie polish remover but I still have to swipe my nails with the straight stuff or I get bumps in the fresh polish.

Just a thought, I line the cuticles with olive oil and Vaseline when I remove polish. I use a Qtip to remove which takes forever but it keeps the remover from murdering my skin.

_________________~Sweet songs the youth, the wise, the meeting of all wisdom. To believe in the good in man.

As a kid it looked like I had a Kool-aid stain around my mouth because of eczema. I have no clue why it went away but thank goodness it did because it was super painful. Like MomMeTrois, I also found steroid creams to only make the problem worse!

These days I have patches of eczema all over my upper arms. I may have to give the Buffy bar a go. I've tried everything to get rid of it but it is incredibly persistent!

I've also started getting really raw gross patches on my inner wrists. I think it's because I work around strong solvents all day and my gloves don't go up that far. Not much I can do about it though.

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Ughhhhhhh it's back! It's not everywhere right now, and it's not super super noticeable (and hopefully will stay that way) but there are a couple super itchy dry spots on my face and it's soooooooooo uncomfortable. It always starts in this same spot too, between my right eye and the side of my nose. BLECH BLECH BLECH WHINE WHINE WHINE WHINE

_________________Man, fork the gender card, imma come at you with the whole damned gender deck. - Olives Did you ever think that, like, YOU are a sexy costume FOR a diva cup? - solipsistnationblog!FB!

I'm allergic to dust mites and had crazy break outs for years before going to an allergist who pin pointed it. I also have reactions to weird things like mango's and cucumber leaves. I break out into eczema like rashes all over my hands, but that hasn't happened since I was a kid. My doctor told me to stop using a wash cloth, as it irritates the skin, and I use super moisturizing bath products. Sucks.

Freddy Kruger finger AGAIN, but it's the tip of my middle finger this time and there weren't any bumps, it's just still in a cycle of peeling and it was so flaky and gross and if my hands weren't perfectly clean it looked even WORSE. And then today I was out driving around and it was itching and I was kind of absent-mindedly scratching at it with my thumb nail while I drove. The skin underneath is pretty thin and sensitive, but it wasn't as bad as when my pointer finger peeled last month. And there's still dead skin under my nail and you can really see how dead, flaky and white it is in comparison, but I can't get it out unless I want to yank with tweezers, and that will hurt.

Eczema, the game that no one wants to play and you cannot forking win.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

I've suffered with eczema for as long as I can remember. I've had it in various places on my body over the years but right now it's worse on my arms, hands, scalp, neck and eyes.

I try and avoid using steroid creams as much as possible because I've been left with a lot of skin discolouration from past use. It's taken me a while to find something that soothes the patches on my eyes but at the moment the Full of Grace serum from Lush is working well (I use it at night) and the Avene Soothing Eye Contour Cream is emollient enough to take care of dryness in the day time but it's not really clearing it up. Sometimes taking an anti-histamine tablet works slightly. It's only been in the last 6 months that I've had eye eczema this bad, I think it's probably triggered by tiredness and stress. I haven't had eczema on my face since I was at school and I spent most of my teens with an eczema 'moustache'.

My hands have been the biggest battle for me. It doesn't help that i have to wash my hands constantly at work, I feel stuck in a vicious cycle because when I have a few days off it gets better and then within a few hours of being back at work it rears it's ugly head. I use steroid cremas the most on my hands because I'm yet to find anything else that really works. No hand cream or body lotion that I have tried is emollient enough although I do use the Lush Ultrabalm at night with a pair of cotton gloves but I regularly wake up in an itching frenzy. Luckily I'm moving to a job where hand washing is not constantly required so maybe that will help.

I read somewhere that calendula oil is good for eczema so I tried the Weleda baby range but that didn't really work for me.

I've had very mild eczema for the past few years, since I started living in Asia. I would get a few fluid filled bumps on my fingers every year with summer (super hot and super humid), and they would go away at the end of the season. This year I have a larger patch on the back of my right hand, and I'm not too sure what to do about it. It's neither hot not humid and yet that sucker is not going away...

My sister has had horrible eczema her entire life, but the level of severity is so different I really don't feel I can borrow her products. I'm nowhere near the needing cortisone stage...